Lighter Side: Thought it was just a bad connection? Think again.

Lighter Side: Thought it was just a bad connection? Think again.

We all know managing a remote workforce can be a nightmare and keeping employees engaged is an everyday struggle. Now, one new survey has revealed just how difficult that daily task is after asking workers to share the strangest places they’ve ever answered a conference call from.

Employees admitted to answering calls from:

A truck stop restroom

A McDonalds play area

The beach

Disney World

Behind a church during a wedding rehearsal

The racetrack

The closet of a friend’s house during a party

On the street, while chasing a dog

The survey, commissioned by conference solutions provider InterCall, surveyed 500 professionals to find out the most peculiar places they’d ever picked up from but also to find out what else they’re doing while they’re supposed to be listening.

Here are the top ten things employees do while listening (or pretending to at least):

Doing other work – 65 per cent

Sending emails – 63 per cent

Eating or making food – 55 per cent

Going to the restroom – 47 per cent

Texting – 44 per cent

Checking social media – 43 per cent

Playing video games – 25 per cent

Shopping online – 21 per cent

Exercising – 9 per cent

Taking another phone call – 6 per cent.

We’re not quite sure whether we’d be annoyed or oddly impressed to discover our employees were multitasking to this extent. Taking a conference call and exercising seems like a near impossible feat to us…

Somewhat more alarmingly was the following:

27 per cent of respondents admitted to falling asleep during a call

5 per cent said they’d had a friend take the call in their place

39 per cent said they dropped out of a call without announcing it

Have you ever taken a conference call from an unusual location? Let us know…

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